You might not know who Gary Glitter is, but you definitely know his most famous song, "Rock and Roll Part 2," if you're a sports fan. It's the song that's played in stadiums all over the world, the song that is all instrumental except for shouts of "Hey!"
In addition to writing that song in 1972, Glitter has had a long history of legal troubles, including a conviction for possession of child pornography in England and a conviction for molesting two girls in Vietnam.
Vietnam just let him out of prison, and he's trying to travel all over Asia, but other countries aren't letting him in. The New York Times reports:
Vietnam deported him; Thailand refused him entry, saying he was ''a threat to domestic morality,'' and Hong Kong put him on a flight back to Thailand. ...Glitter's main source of income is the royalties he collects when his song is played.Thai immigration authorities said on Thursday that Gary Glitter - real name, Paul Francis Gadd; claim to fame, a 1972 hit record that you still hear played in stadiums around the world - had agreed to fly to London, although they said they did not know when he would do so.
Mr. Gadd, 64, spent nearly three years in prison in Vietnam, and became a symbol of Southeast Asia's long-running problems with pedophilia and child prostitution. His flamboyant style and somewhat otherworldly looks, which helped make him a compelling stage presence in the 1970s and 1980s, now contribute to his unsavory image here, and advocacy groups are glad that he is being made officially unwelcome.
''It's sending a very clear message out to sex abusers and potential sex abusers that they are no longer going to be able to get away with hopping from one Southeast Asian country to the next in the hope of having easy access to children and impunity from justice,'' said Mark Capaldi, the deputy director of a Bangkok-based foundation called End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes.
